EDITORIAL — Budget red flags

A coalition of civil society organizations sees red flags in nearly P736 billion of the P7.2-trillion national outlay proposed by the executive for 2027, which a public finance analyst has described as an “election budget.”

Of the P736 billion flagged by the People’s Budget Coalition, P140.07 billion is seen as “soft pork” consisting of ayuda and other social protection programs. Another P483.51 billion is tagged by the PBC as “hard pork” – mainly funding for infrastructure projects, which are vulnerable to budget insertions and allocations for non-existent or ghost projects.

The PBC sees the remaining P111.98 billion as standby or “shadow pork” – unprogrammed appropriations that can be funded only if sufficient revenue becomes available.

Apart from these items, the PBC also flagged the P58.53 billion for “local pork” or the Local Government Support Fund, which is a lump-sum allocation whose amount jumped this year, and is proposed to get a slight increase in 2027 from the current P57.87 billion. The LGSF goes to provincial, city and municipal governments as well as barangays, for utilization at their discretion.

Long-time budget watcher Sen. Panfilo Lacson previously said there are pork barrel-type allocations in the proposed national outlay for 2027, even after the scandal that erupted over anomalous budgeting involving flood control and other public works projects.

Lacson has specifically flagged a P3-billion lump sum allocation for evacuation centers.

Despite public outrage over the budgeting mess, both Congress and Malacañang have refused to let go of ayuda programs that the PBC says entrench patronage-driven politics to the detriment of rules-based and rights-based social protection.

For 2027, over P71 billion has been proposed for these patronage-driven aid programs: the Assistance to Individuals in Crisis Situations, the Tulong Panghanapbuhay sa Ating Disadvantaged/Displaced Workers, and the Medical Assistance for Indigent and Financially Incapacitated Patients. The executive is proposing P33.28 billion for AICS, P14.25 billion for TUPAD and P24.24 billion for MAIFIP, the medical pork barrel.

Both chambers of Congress have just started the budget deliberations. With the awareness that the budget proposal is under close scrutiny, perhaps lawmakers will show a genuine commitment to transparent and judicious budgeting.

The budget scandal revolved around the institutionalization of the plunder of national coffers, and the use of public funds for personal purposes. The current budget process is a chance for both Congress and the executive to prove skeptics wrong and show that the systematic looting is a thing of the past.